There is a French urban legend according to which authorities in 1986 told the general public that the radioactive cloud created by the Chernobyl disaster had stopped dead at the French border, thus posing no risks for the country. While that story has long been debunked, it is being recreated today during the coronavirus pandemic by Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil’s second-most populated and second-richest state. Minas Gerais borders São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the states with the highest absolute numbers of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the country. And yet, if we take the Zema administration’s word at face value, it is as if the virus has simply refused to cross state lines.
According to data from the Health Ministry, Minas Gerais has confirmed...
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